With nine members, a lineup that features classically trained musicians, percussionists rooted in samba rhythms and grooves soaked in Latin jazz, Berto Ramon is the vibrant antithesis of a brooding MC stalking an empty stage. "It's like taking a corner in Humboldt Park along Division and putting a soundtrack to it," offers Boogaloo (Esteban Shedd), one of the band's two MCs. "Our influences are classic salsa and classic Latin jazz, big-time.
It's people like Tito Puente, Willie Colon, Ruben Blades and different samba artists like Gilbert Gil. It's very rhythm-centered, which hip-hop is, too. And we're hip-hop, too, because we come from the city, we come from Chicago.
" The band includes MC Just J (Justin Jones), conga player Lolo (Loren LaLuz), Lolo's brother Johnny Bravo (Johnny Laluz) on bongos, guitarist Mo (Moises Pacheco), bass player Opio (David Opio), drummer and DJ Moral 1 (Aaron Lopez), keyboardist Oca (Wilfredo Ocasio) and violinist Chino (Samuel Lee). Until recently, they were a 10-piece outfit, but former drummer Jesse Santoyo left the band to focus on his other group, the Saturn Project. Berto Ramon's members first met as students at Moody Bible Institute.
But they didn't get together until after finishing school. bull; Tickets, $8 in advance, $10 at the door (18+over show) "I was making beats, but I love live music so I didn't want to continue with just the beats," says Boogaloo. "So knowing all of my boys were musicians, we just started linking together.
" When the band started playing, the musicians immediately started to draw on their remarkable cultural diversity, as members' family heritages represent Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil, Trinidad and Korea. "It's a blending of all of our roots. The hip-hop we get from America, the big-city feel, but then also we blend in the congas and the bongos and timbales and the samba sounds to reflect our roots in the Caribbean and South America.
" But the music of Berto Ramon is not just classic salsa with two MCs dropped on the top. It's heavier, as all of the drums are enhanced with the classic hip-hop sound of a Roland TR-808, Boogaloo explains. "We might have your pop's music -- congas, bongos, timbales heavy -- but when we go into the studio, we lace it with the 808 pops you hear in music today, so that people can bump it in their rides or bump it on the corner or bump it in the crib.
" Drawing on the traditions of Latin music, the band also feels a social and political responsibility, which begins with the lyrics of the MCs. "There is a lot of garbage out there giving a false portrayal of the neighborhoods. They are promoting negativity," Boogaloo says.
"We feel a responsibility to be a voice of the people with no voice, whether that's the shorty caught up in gang violence or a single mother, we are a voice for the people who are struggling, trying to make it, and we want to that communicate to the masses so that the people get the right portrayal of what is going on in Chicago." Much of this, he adds, comes from the band's experiences. "A lot of us were saved from different things, we were saved from gang violence, we've seen people killed and locked up, people in our families have been addicted to drugs or to the street life," Boogaloo says.
"But we've also seen the hope and all of us are professed believers in Christ, though we don't beat people over the head with that. We just tell our story." The band currently is unsigned but will record a CD this spring to shop around to labels.
In the meantime, Berto Ramon has been playing shows around the country and spreading the group's unique sound. "We've gained acceptance from older cats and young kids, so we have a following that crosses generations," Boogaloo says. "It's working in Chicago.
But how will it play out across the nation? We'll have to see." David Jakubiak is a local free-lance writer.
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